It may be 2013, but that doesn't mean that Satan has updated his methods of corrupting America's youth, as John Hagee explained in his Sunday sermon this week in which he warned his congregation, yet again, that if they read Harry Potter books they are "opening the gates of your mind to the Prince of Darkness and he will invade, and once he's invited in, he doesn't go out until he is cast out."

Even more dangerous, Hagee warned, is that infernal rock and roll music, which "is nothing more than Satanic cyanide" that needs to be taken outside of the home and burned.

There's also that nasty Dungeons and Dragons habit of mine...just getting ready to ramp up a 1st edition AD&D campaign in fact...

In a segment of “The 700 Club” related to the suicide of the daughter of a Southern Baptist leader, Pat Robertson linked teen suicide to “demonic” games like Dungeons and Dragons, as well as to anorexia and bulimia. “The pressure on [teens] is just incredible,” he said.

I honestly find it really hard to get my head around the apparent fact that there are still people like this in the world today. Did Lord of the Rings (Tolkien) get this sort of twaddle thrown at him? And rock music - seriously?

Tolkein was a strict Catholic, and much of the LOTR, and Silmarillion books have a religious undercurrent to them. By that, he sort of gets a pass from all but the least educated theistic critics.

The irony is Dungeons and Dragons is basically a riff off of LOTR and is reviled by the religious. However, it's pretty obvious D&D is not "stealth religion" or if it is it's stealth "any religion" or "pagan" as all gods are real in the game.

I'm reminded of a scene in the old "Oh God!" movie with George Burns where he sends John Denver to the televangelist to tell him he should sit down and shut up, that the man had run out of God's words a long time ago.

I think people like Hagee serve a purpose in the divine plan, by way of comic relief. They help the rest of us not to get too serious about this religion stuff.

Yeah, building a campaign from scratch...plan to start it up in October with a clowder of my son's friends (all around 17 yrs old). It's time they broke away from d20 and it's combat centric gameplay. I want to get back into better roleplay.